A number of systems are known for blending and dispensing two-blend components to form at least one blended final product. Alternatively, the systems dispense several blended products made up of differing amounts of each of the blend components. Typically, the control devices for these systems require measuring the flow rate and/or cumulative volume of each of the blend components so that a proper amount of each may be added to the blending process to create a desired final product.
Blending systems used for commercial applications with retail customers must conform to government-mandated regulations concerning the accuracy of the measured quantity and the quality of the dispensed product. Meeting these tight measurement tolerances for applications, such as service station fuel dispensing, requires a highly accurate meter having an accuracy of much less than plus or minus one percent. Measuring devices capable of meeting these standards can be expensive and with blending components, this cost is multiplied by the number of components. Thus, it would be desirable to have an alternative blend component measurement system that minimizes the need for costly precision meters. Desirably, such a system would be fully retrofitable into existing blending systems. The present invention addresses this need.